The Masked Maiden
by moonlitxmemories
Summary: Lily leads a double life. During the day, she is village girl Lily Evans. At night, she becomes the legendary heroine, the Masked Maiden. LilyJames.


**The Masked Maiden and the Unicorns of Bristol**

By moonlitxmemories

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. Everything else belongs to J.K.

Summery: Lily leads a double life. During the day, she is Lily Evans. In the night, she is the legendary heroine the Masked Maiden.

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Chapter One: The Arrival of the Shady Swordsman

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Lily. She lived in that magical world where fairies and dragons and all those other mystical creatures existed. But who cares about them? This story is about Lily! Get it? Good.

Lily lived with her evil sister Petunia. During the day, Lily was known as that girl who we don't care about because all she did was do chores for her evil sister. But at night, she transformed herself into the legendary heroine, the Masked Maiden.

DUN, DUN, DUN!

Okay, the story's going to start now.

As soon as Petunia fell asleep, the redhead crept out of her dusty room to begin her nighttime adventures. She tied on the fancy green mask that covered her face and protected her identity and slipped into a green gown and a green cloak. She put up the hood of the cloak, as her red hair was a dead giveaway to who she really was.

She ran to the woods and untied her horse, Midnight. She mounted the black horse and rode into the night.

Underneath her green cloak, Lily, or should I say, the Masked Maiden, hid a long sword, as she encountered thieves and bandits along her journeys rather often. Tonight's exciting adventure involves a criminal, a small town, and a herd of magnificent unicorns.

There was a village, known by the name of Bristol. A herd of unicorns had migrated to a farmer's field and were eating all the crops. Now, this was angering the village people, as this particular farmer grew the best tasting strawberries in the town. So the angry villagers hired a hunter by the name of the Black Bandit (DUN, DUN, DUN!) They were so angry that all of their delicious strawberries being eaten by the unicorns, that they did not give a care in the world that the Black Bandit was a wanted criminal.

The Black Bandit had taken upon himself to kill the unicorns and sell their hairs to the village apothecary, as unicorn hairs can stop bleeding in a heartbeat. This Black Bandit character was rapidly becoming rich. He had killed almost the entire herd, there were now three unicorns left.

This is where are darling friend Lily comes in. She had heard of the shady 'bandit' character and was coming to stop him. "On, Midnight, on! We must save those poor unicorns!" she cried dramatically as she rode through the forest.

As she arrived as the village, she was just in time to stop the evil bandit! He was about to slit the helpless creature's throat, when she cried out, "In the name of Bristol, put that sword down!"

"Do you know who I am?" the Bandit snarled. "I be the Black Bandit, mate. There's no one in the seven seas that can stop me!"

The Bandit preceded by laughing evilly until he started coughing. He had just suffered from a bad case of bronchitis and wasn't up for laughing evilly yet.

The Maiden harshly interrupted his coughing fit. "We aren't in the ocean you dolt! We're on land. So, as there might be no one in the seven seas that can stop you, there are quite a few in the seven continents that can!"

The Bandit looked confused for a second. Then he seemed to regain composure as he stated, "You will always remember this as the day that you almost stopped the Black Bandit!" With that said, the Bandit stood with his knife at the poor creatures throat, and he insert gory details about the Bandit killing the unicorn here.

Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Jack Sparrow doesn't even exist for another two thousand years, and so I suggest that you stop stealing his lines and shut up!"

She realized what the Black Bandit had done and she said, "Not so fast!" as she unsheathed her sword and pressed it into the hollow of his throat.

"You will pay for taking such an innocent life like that! And for your own benefit too!" She scolded.

She tried to strike him in his arm with her sword, but as it turned out, he was quite the skilled swordsman. He blocked her and fought back.

Then, insert gory details of a fight between the Masked Maiden and the Black Bandit here. The brawl ended with Lily being struck in the arm. No, he didn't chop off her arm, you fighting obsessed twits!

She gasped and the Bandit started laughing, forgetting, as he is rather stupid, that he was not completely healed from his bout of bronchitis yet, and once again, had a coughing fit.

"Till cough next time cough!" The Black Bandit vowed, as he stole away with the night as a cover.

"Why, it's almost dawn!" Lily cried. She quickly mounted her horse to return to home.

She jumped into bed and slept for a while, at least until dawn her sister called, "Lily! You lazy scum! Get up!"

Lily groaned and reluctantly awoke, only to discover the sleeve of her white night shirt red. "What happ-"

She suddenly remembered her encounter with the infamous Black Bandit last night. She went into her dresser and tore off a piece of a too small petticoat and used it to bandage her wound. She got dressed and made her way to the kitchen to make breakfast.

The rest of the day consisted of boring chores that made Lily's arms ache. The chores ranged from going to the market, to giving her sister foot massages. Lily claimed that her hands would never smell the same again.

Then, after a day of horrendous chores, night approached.

Once again, Lily stole out of her room as soon as her lazy sister was asleep. She vowed to stop the evil bandit and knew that she must succeed.

She rode her horse to the village of Bristol. Once again, she found the Black Bandit there.

"Ah, I thought I might see you here tonight!" The Black Bandit replied. There was something about the Black Bandit's voice that sounded quite familiar to the Masked Maiden, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Yes!" Lily said. "I have come to defeat you!"

There were still two unicorns left. The Black Bandit ceased the nearest, a grown female, and said, "How's that wound of yours?"

The Maiden's eyes narrowed as she said. "You're going to pay for that."

Bandit replied, "You are entirely way too dramatic, young heroine. But no amount of drama can stop me now! I am THE BLACK BANDIT!" He took Superman like stance.

"Oh yeah, _I'm_ dramatic." The Maiden said sarcastically.

The Black Bandit ignored her as he rambled on and on about how invincible he was.

Lily rolled her bright emerald green eyes. She unsheathed her long sword and cut his arm. He gasped, drawing his hand away, causing his grip on the unicorn to be, well, severed.

The unicorn trotted away, into the safety of the far side of the field.

Bandit's eyes widened at the Maiden's actions. "You are going to regret ever interfering with the Black Bandit. No one, _no one_, gets away with hurting the Black Bandit," he snarled.

"Well, there's always a first time," Lily smirked.

"Don't jest with me! You have no idea who you're dealing with. _No idea_."

Lily gulped. She hadn't expected the Black Bandit to get this angry over a little cut on his arm, seeing as he had practically cut off her arm last night! (Lily does like to exaggerate rather often)

Lily drew her sword and exclaimed, "Would you like to continue that wonderful little scuffle we started last night?"

"Gladly," the Bandit smirked.

Insert more and more gory details involving swords and two skilled swords people

Suddenly, out of the shadows, a man appeared, with a sword, and began to help the Masked Maiden, as she was losing badly.

"Excuse me, not to be rude of anything, but who are you?" Lily inquired.

"The Shady Swordsman," he replied in a deep voice.

"Sorry to interfere this meeting, but I have an appointment with the apothecary," the Black Bandit spoke suddenly and he ran towards the town square.

"Why did you help me?" the Maiden asked.

"I watched your fights with the Black Bandit last night, and figured you could use some help," he said.

"As we are allies, would you give me the pleasure of knowing who is under this mask?" he asked.

"Sorry, but that is strictly confidential," Lily said grinning.

"Well, that's quite all right," he answered, clearly a bit disappointed.

Lily stepped back and analyzed her ally. He was tall and had black hair and pretty hazel eyes. That was about all she could make out about him, seeing as the rest of his face was hidden by a mask, just like her.

"I better get going," the Shady Swordsman said awkwardly. "I'll be back tomorrow to help you silence the Black Bandit for good."

With that said, the Shady Swordsman mounted his horse and rode into the distance.

"Wait!" Lily called after him. "You dropped your-"

But it was too late, the Shady Swordsman was already out of sight.

Lily sighed and glanced at the glasses in her hands. They were thin and owl-rimmed and slightly cracked in the top of the left side.

With a yawn, she mounted Midnight and rode home with thoughts flying through her head. _Who is the Shady Swordsman, and why is he helping me?_


End file.
